New Breed of German Extortionist Has Soft Spot for Shoppers

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Published: July 4, 1998

FRANKFURT, July 3—
The extortionist wanted his demand taken seriously, but apparently did not want to hurt anyone.

So when he slipped jars of marmalade laced with rat poison into supermarkets in Lubeck earlier this year, he attached labels that read: ''CAUTION: POISON.''

Last month, prosecutors in Lubeck charged a 48-year-old architect with trying to extort $600,000 from the marmalade maker, Schwartauer Werke.

In one of the oddest crime waves that Europe has seen in years, Germany has become engulfed in extortion attempts by people who threaten to poison products and scare away millions of dollars in sales.

The police estimate that there have been 120 cases in the last year, with 2 or 3 new ones every week. Nestle's German subsidiaries are receiving about a dozen threats a year. Supermarket chains, food producers and cosmetic companies have all been targets. Many have fought off more than one attempt.

''I am sorry to say that Germany is the world leader in this type of crime,'' said Klaus J. Ruthe, a partner at Control Risks International, an industrial security firm.

German consumer-products companies are starting to use tamper-resistant packaging but many products remain exposed. Nestle and other companies have organized response teams for dealing with threats as soon as they develop.

This crime wave seems to be dominated by nervous amateurs rather than hardened felons. About two-thirds of the extortion attempts stop after the first threatening letter. Extortionists who have tried to ratchet up the pressure by placing poisoned products in supermarkets have sometimes warned companies where to look for them.

Arrests and convictions are continuing, but few of the suspects arrested in the past year have had the usual criminal backgrounds. Police officials described several as bankrupt businessmen and one as a law student.

''These are people who aren't comfortable with causing physical harm,'' said Jurgen Schmidt, the head of criminal investigations in Gifhorn, a small city in Lower Saxony, who has dealt with three cases in the last six months. ''With extortion, you don't have to threaten the people personally. It's a form of criminality that doesn't require a professional.''

Because a handful of poisonings could be enough to cause panic and cost a company millions of dollars in lost sales, individuals with few resources have the power to make a real threat. But most of the schemes collapse when it comes to collecting actual money.

''Anybody can write a letter or make a phone call,'' said Isabella Holper, a spokeswoman for Maggi G.m.b.H., a subsidiary of Nestle that makes packaged soups and other products. ''But the police tell us that, if it comes to a transfer of money, they can catch them every time.''

The police and industrial security consultants advise companies to play along with extortionists, though always in collaboration with the police, in order to elicit clues about their identities.

Beiersdorf AG., a cosmetics company in Hamburg that makes Nivea skin-care products, used negotiation and stalling tactics against extortionists who had threatened to contaminate Nivea products if the company refused to pay about $500,000. Company officials notified the police, but began to communicate with the extortionists by posting messages through classified ads in a newspaper.

As negotiations about payments dragged on, the blackmailers sent 13 letters and made more than 50 phone calls from Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. In mid-March, they mixed chemical solvents into one of the company's hair-gel products and slipped samples into a supermarket in Mainz. They warned the company where to look and nobody was injured.

On May 18, the Hamburg police apparently traced a call to a telephone booth in Venlo, the Netherlands. There they arrested two men and charged them with trying to blackmail Beiersdorf. The two men have denied the charges and are now in jail awaiting trial.